Manchester attack: Defiant residents stage vigil

Update - May 24: Since this article was published on May 23, Martyn Hakan Hett has been confirmed killed in the attack. His brother Dan, who had launched a social media campaign to find his missing sibling, tweeted: "They found my brother last night. We are heartbroken".

Manchester, England - Tens of thousands of people in Manchester have rallied in a show of unity after a suicide bombing at a music concert left 22 people dead and dozens wounded.

An improvised explosive device went off late on Monday as thousands of fans streamed out of Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande performance.

There was no sign of such controversies at the vigil where the mood was one of solemn defiance and unity, reflecting Manchester's diverse demographic.

Crowd listened in near silence to those on stage, giving the occasional rounds of applause and chants of "Manchester, Manchester".

"We are not scared of anyone," Chris, who was taking part in the vigil, said. "There are always bad eggs. But for every bad one, there are millions of good ones."

This is classic Manchester - responding with solidarity, love and industriousness. The attacker wanted to hurt us and we are hurting. But more than that, he wanted to divide us.

Tom Skinner, Manchester resident

Tom Skinner, another Manchester local, said those responsible would not succeed in dividing the city.

"People have opened up their homes, given free taxi rides and queued up en masse to give blood," he said.

"This is classic Manchester - responding with solidarity, love and industriousness. The attacker wanted to hurt us and we are hurting. But more than that, he wanted to divide us."

Following the bombing, hundreds of people took to Facebook and Twitter to help out those affected. In addition to food and lifts to their destination, locals opened up their homes to those who needed a place.

A minicab company also offered free rides to safe locations to all of those affected.

After learning about the attack, Naveed Arshad, owner of Street Cars Manchester, committed 35 drivers to the relief effort.

Those caught up in the attack were taken to safe places by the derivers, even to their homes in cities as far away as Chester, which is 65km from Manchester.

"We tried our best, our phones went crazy, we just wanted to help as many of those who were stuck and didn’t know what what to do," said Arshad.

"There were a lot of children there and they were disorientated trying to find their parents. At the same time, we had parents calling the office trying to find out where their kids were."